PhD Candidate

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Biography

I’m a PhD candidate in the Hyadata Data Science Lab in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the supervision of Dafna Shahaf (HUJI) and Reut Tsarfaty (Bar Ilan University/Allen Institute for AI). Interested in how human intelligence can inform artificial intelligence, and vice versa. In particular, I’m interested in embodied/grounded cognition research and how it may help in building deeper language understanding and higher level cognition into AI systems.

During my PhD, I’ve also been fortunate to have 3 wonderful summer internships: 2 at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle (mentored by Gabi Stanovsky and Kyle Richardson), and one with the RIKEN institute in Japan (under Prof. Yuji Matsumoto).

Outside of the lab, I’m also passionate about socio-technical activism (e.g., RadicalXChange) for building more useful and equitable technology towards broader social change. I’m co-founder of Common SenseMakers, a community focused on research and development around systems for distributed collective sensemaking. Together, we’re working on technology and practices to help people and groups navigate information overload, find meaning and connection, and make sense of an increasingly complex world.

I’m also into various other embodied pursuits like trekking, cycling, yoga and world music.

For some random musings on the meaning of life, the universe and everything, check out my blog (Hebrew).

๐Ÿ—ž๏ธ News

  • February 2022: co-founded Common SenseMakers, a community focused on research and development around systems for distributed collective sensemaking.
  • September 2021: starting visiting research program with Prof. Judith Fan’s Cognitive Tools computational cognitive science/psychology lab at UCSD!
  • June 2021: started a summer internship at AI2 with Kyle Richardson on the Aristo team.

Interests

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Grounded & Embodied Cognition
  • Meta-{science, governance, society}
  • Tools for thought and collaboration

Education

  • PhD in CS (Natural Langauge Understanding), 2018-

    Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  • MSc in CS (Deep Learning Theory), 2017

    Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  • BSc in Computer Engineering, 2015

    Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Community

Workshop Co-organizer

Founding Member

Founding member of Common SenseMakers, a community working on research and development of distributed protocols, practices, and tools for collective sensemaking.

Reviewer

ACL (21' - outstanding reviewer), NAACL (21')

Organizing Committee

Team member of JerusML organizing committee, the Jerusalem data science / machine learning community.